SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, go with me to Genesis Chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: You have it, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let me make sure you're awake.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Takes me a minute to get from music mode to preaching mode, so there's a question I want to want you to think about today.
SPEAKER_01: Um, probably one that you've wrestled with before.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is.
SPEAKER_01: How could a good and loving God flood the earth, wiping out multitudes of people, men, women, children?
SPEAKER_01: How could that how do we reconcile that?
SPEAKER_01: It's a question that infuriates many unbelievers, and it's a hindrance to many people uh coming to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And it still puzzles many Christians as well.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you are familiar with the atheist Richard Dawkins uh and drawing from texts of what he calls divine violence.
SPEAKER_01: He accuses God of being a moral monster.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says in one of his books.
SPEAKER_01: He says, What makes my jaw drop is that people today should base their lives on such an appalling, an appalling role model as Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think I'd want to be Dawkins on judgment day.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's a Christian author, Rachel Held Evans.
SPEAKER_01: She admits to her own struggle with texts like these, and she says, quote, the question of God's character haunted every scene and every act and every drama of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just the story of Noah's flood that unsettled me.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe if you're honest this morning, you've probably read some Old Testament scripture or perhaps something in Revelation about final judgment, and you've been a little unsettled.
SPEAKER_01: Can we be honest today?
SPEAKER_01: So why is it that many of us have struggled with texts like the flood?
SPEAKER_01: I think this is it.
SPEAKER_01: It's because we do not understand the depths of human wickedness, of human depravity, of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's only when you take an honest look at human wickedness and the horrors of sin that you can come to terms with what seems to be extreme judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to argue today as we look in in uh Genesis chapter six at the state of the world in the story.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: The shocking part of the flood narrative is not that God would flood the earth, killing multitudes of people.
SPEAKER_01: The shocking part of that story is that God would spare anyone at all.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, can I say that again?
SPEAKER_01: The shocking, the flood story is shocking, but not for the reasons that a lot of people think.
SPEAKER_01: The shocking part of the flood narrative is not that God would flood the earth, flood his creation, wiping out many, many people.
SPEAKER_01: The shocking part of the flood narrative is that God would save anyone and preserve humanity.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look first at the extent of human wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at one through four, Genesis 6, 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody say, Hey.
SPEAKER_01: And they took as their wives any they chose.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.
SPEAKER_01: His days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
SPEAKER_01: The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them, and they were mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at this next verse.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And think about this, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's start with the really fun part of the text.
SPEAKER_01: Very enigmatic story or set of verses here.
SPEAKER_01: Very highly debated story here at the beginning of chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: Who are the sons of God who come in and impregnate the daughters of men?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of views, but let me give you the two most popular views.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it's called the Sethite view.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, uh Cain killed Abel, and then God gave Eve another son, which became Cain's brother, named Seth.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the Sethite view.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what that the proponents of that view believe.
SPEAKER_01: So remember in Genesis 3, 15, as part of the curse, remember how God tells Eve there's going to be this perpetual conflict between your offspring and the offspring of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: And then we see this play out in chapter 4 and chapter 5, where you have the seed of the serpent represented in the line of Cain who killed his brother.
SPEAKER_01: And then he has Lamech and all these people who are just sinners.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So that so the text portrays Cain's line as the offspring of Satan, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: And then we have Seth's line, who seems to be the godly line, not perfect, but godly, people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so within the Seth, excuse me, the Sethite view, here's what they believe that the sons of God are the sons of Seth.
SPEAKER_01: These are the people of God, and that the daughters of man, these are the daughters, the women in Cain's line.
SPEAKER_01: And what is happening is they are intermarrying.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how many know the Bible says that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers?
SPEAKER_01: Young people, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Or older people looking for a spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if that's you, we might be able to connect you, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I know that an ungodly man or woman might be good looking.
SPEAKER_01: And I know what you'll say to justify getting with them.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, you know, I believe I'm I'm a really good Christian and I'm gonna win them to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you know what we call that?
SPEAKER_01: It's called missionary dating.
SPEAKER_01: And I would argue it's not a good idea because it's a lot easier to pull someone down than it is to lift someone up.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord actually in the Old Testament, do you know that He forbids this uh the people of Israel to intermarry with people of the pagan nations?
SPEAKER_01: That's in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: But then we see later on that the Israelites actually they lived in amongst the Canaanites and other uh pagan people, and they go, Oh, come on, we can intermarry, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: We'll still remain godly, and they marry these pagan people.
SPEAKER_01: You know what happens?
SPEAKER_01: They end up worshiping pagan gods and they come under God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So, in the Sethite view, and it by the way, if I were just to read the context of Genesis 1 through 6, this is where I would land.
SPEAKER_01: And it's neat and I like it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, it doesn't take a lot of explaining.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: But this is this is a Sethite view.
SPEAKER_01: Ungodly line of Cain contaminates the godly line of Seth.
SPEAKER_01: And you have people like Augustine and Calvin and Luther who were proponents of of this view.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a compelling view.
SPEAKER_01: But then I think the more compelling view is what's called the angelic view.
SPEAKER_01: This is kind of weird, all right?
SPEAKER_01: So in this view, the sons of God, anybody know what who they are?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, fallen angels, and the daughters of men would be human men in general.
SPEAKER_01: And so in the story, here's what they would say is happening that these rebellious fallen angels look down upon the human women and go, hey, and they come down, they take them for themselves, and they impregnate them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know to modern minds it's like, really?
SPEAKER_01: But let me just say this: if Jesus is really raised from the dead, I think this stuff can happen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some support.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of support for this view.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the book of Job uses this title, Sons of God, to refer to members of God's heavenly court.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Job 1, 6.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's divine counsel.
SPEAKER_01: Then in Jude 6 and 7, it talks about the the uh fallen angels, okay, uh abandoning their proper dwelling.
SPEAKER_01: Many people connect what's written in Jude to Genesis 6.
SPEAKER_01: Then you have Peter who connects judgment of the fallen angels to the flood account.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look closely.
SPEAKER_01: I think we have this on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: It's 2 Peter 2, 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.
SPEAKER_01: If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, here's the flood, a herald of righteousness with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
SPEAKER_01: So there you have the fallen angels connected with the story of Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Then we have the book of first Enoch.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn there with me right now, okay, it's not in your Bible, but but it is.
SPEAKER_01: I saw some of you like, yeah, let me look at the table of content, Hunter.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most laugh, like the longest laugh I've gotten in a long time, right?
SPEAKER_01: Book of first Enoch, it's an ancient writing outside of the canon, um, and it takes the angelic view.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not authoritative, it's not divinely inspired like we see the rest of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what here this is worth thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the book of first Enoch is a Jewish text, and I think what it shows us at least is this is how um the early Jews interpreted this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then finally, this was the major position of the early church fathers.
SPEAKER_01: So we cannot be sure, but I think the angelic view seems most probable.
SPEAKER_01: So then this begs the question for us modern minds.
SPEAKER_01: We're so inquisitive, like, how in the world do fallen angels come and then impregnate women?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody go there this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Like, how in the world does this happen?
SPEAKER_01: And one view is this that uh the angels just assumed human bodies and came to these women uh in maybe, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's a more compelling view here.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think.
SPEAKER_01: I think these fallen angels enticed, came and enticed, or even possessed, probably possessed, human men.
SPEAKER_01: Because this fits with our narrative.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think happened.
SPEAKER_01: Remember in the Garden of Eden, remember this?
SPEAKER_01: The the serpent comes and tempts Eve, and Eve and Adam open themselves up to the enemy's ploys, and they give in to the temptation of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's the same thing that's happening right here.
SPEAKER_01: I think these angels come and I think they tempt the men, seduce them with the promises of power and sexuality.
SPEAKER_01: And they, buying into the enemy's lies, they give themselves over to demonic influence.
SPEAKER_01: I think these are lustful men who open themselves to lustful fallen angels.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but I think this is important.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I this another reason I take this view is because I don't think the children who were produced here are kind of hybrids, half demon, half, you know, there's a lot of half human, a lot of movies like that, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: I think these were real, fully human beings under demonic influence.
SPEAKER_01: Now, all I'll say about that, we can debate this until the cows come home, but how often do we miss in Genesis and throughout the Bible the forest for the trees, right?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the main purpose of the text.
SPEAKER_01: It's not to tell us how all this happened, or Moses would have been more clear.
SPEAKER_01: But what this is doing, it's giving us a gruesome and honest picture of the pervasive wickedness that was in the world before the flood.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just look at this quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the breadth of human wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: It manifests itself, I don't know if you saw it, in two ways, namely through sexual immorality and through unrestrained violence.
SPEAKER_01: I want to point you again to verse two as we look at the unrestrained sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were what?
SPEAKER_01: Attractive, and they took as their wives any that they chose.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But here's what the sons of God have done.
SPEAKER_01: They have reduced women.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that these fallen angels looked down and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Man, those those women, they they have such talent and they're such good people, and they're such help meets, and they're created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: That man, I'd love to have a wife like that.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: They they lusted after them, they saw they were attractive.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what they did: they reduced the women to mere sexual objects, which dehumanized them.
SPEAKER_01: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01: Let's not think this is just primitive people who are plagued with this sin and wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: In 2022, the International Labor Organization gave out some statistics that there's an estimated 6.3 million people trapped in forced sexual exploitation on any given day, right now.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that uh the Barna did a study showing that this is in the United States, that U.S.
SPEAKER_01: adults, 61% of US adults consume pornography on a regular basis?
SPEAKER_01: Look at commercials, look at television.
SPEAKER_01: Is it not true that today that many in our culture reduce really both men and women, but especially women, to mere objects, pieces of meat?
SPEAKER_01: That is still an offense to our good God.
SPEAKER_01: Women, just like men, are created in his image.
SPEAKER_01: These are daughters of God that we are exploiting in this nation and around the world.
SPEAKER_01: Then it says that they took any wives that they chose, which which suggests there's no consent here.
SPEAKER_01: And in the ancient world, there's there's one of two things happening.
SPEAKER_01: Both are horrible.
SPEAKER_01: In the ancient world, you didn't get a wife without the parents giving that bride away.
SPEAKER_01: There had to be an agreement between families.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of two things is happening.
SPEAKER_01: What it sounds like to me from the text is that obviously these fallen angels are not asking permission.
SPEAKER_01: They're not asking for the women's hand in marriage.
SPEAKER_01: They're just taking as many, whomever they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: But there's another possibility, what's happening here, which is horrible, and we've seen this happen today.
SPEAKER_01: And uh some scholars suggest that what's happening here is that parents are actually giving their daughters over to these demonic people for their own benefit.
SPEAKER_01: And there's stories that I've seen in recent weeks where this happens.
SPEAKER_01: For drugs or for money, women are giving their young children, and men are giving their young children over for sexual exploitation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we don't like to talk about this stuff, but this is reality, folks.
SPEAKER_01: This is the world in which we live.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's not just sexual moral immorality, but there's rampant violence.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this started with Cain, who kills his brother because he's jealous.
SPEAKER_01: And then you have Cain's uh descendant, Lamech, who does the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see throughout the text in Genesis uh 3 through uh 6 is that sin does not just continue from generation to generation, but it progresses.
SPEAKER_01: And again, think of the violence in the world today.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that over 1,100 people, 1,100 people a day are murdered?
SPEAKER_01: This is not including accidental deaths and natural deaths.
SPEAKER_01: This is murder, this is homicide, 1,100 people every single day, every 75 seconds, someone is murdered.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the breadth of human wickedness manifested in deep sexual immorality and violence?
SPEAKER_01: It's appalling, but then think of the depth of human wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: Look at with me at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what this tells me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the depth of wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: It's universal.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that he doesn't say, you know what, uh, it's he saw that the line of Cain was really wicked.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't call us out a few people like Lamech or whoever was alive during this time and say, you know what, there's a few bad eggs in the world.
SPEAKER_01: No, he he groups humanity together as a whole.
SPEAKER_01: The wickedness of man was great in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes 7.20 says this, surely there is not a righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 5.12, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_01: You might turn to somebody and say he's talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is universal, but not only that, human wickedness is internal.
SPEAKER_01: It goes down deep within us.
SPEAKER_01: It spreads to the core of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5 again.
SPEAKER_01: This is wild.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every, say every, every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
SPEAKER_01: Sit with that a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Not every act in Noah's day looked like a bad act.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think there were ever good deeds?
SPEAKER_01: Things that appeared to be good and helpful and charitable?
SPEAKER_01: I think so.
SPEAKER_01: But from God's perspective, see, God doesn't just see the behavior, he sees the heart, he sees the motivation.
SPEAKER_01: And he knows that even the good acts were derived with evil intention, or they sprang up from evil intention.
SPEAKER_01: I I love the story of the boy who was in trouble, his teacher was.
SPEAKER_01: Really upset, and she told him, She said, I want you to sit.
SPEAKER_01: He was standing up, so I want you to sit in that chair right there.
SPEAKER_01: And he kind of balked at her and she said, You're gonna sit down right now.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, he sits down and obeys.
SPEAKER_01: And then he looks up at the teacher and he says, I just want you to know I'm still standing up on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, they looked really righteous.
SPEAKER_01: But they prayed, they fasted, and they gave very charitably.
SPEAKER_01: But watch this.
SPEAKER_01: When they prayed, why did they pray?
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to be heard, right?
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to use big words.
SPEAKER_01: Look how spiritual I am.
SPEAKER_01: When they fasted, they wanted to be seen.
SPEAKER_01: They discolored their faces and wanted to see, they wanted people to know how much they sacrificed for God.
SPEAKER_01: And then they gave to the poor, but they wanted to be applauded.
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller said this: quote, our actions may appear righteous while the intentions of our heart remain deeply self-centered.
SPEAKER_01: We can serve to be admired, give to feel superior, and obey in an attempt to place God in our debt.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Christ has redeemed and renewed our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: But even now, we have to test our motives.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, when I get here up here every Sunday, I have to wrestle with this thought.
SPEAKER_01: Am I getting up here to make much of myself, to show how much I've studied and how well I can speak, which isn't great.
SPEAKER_01: But but um listen, or am I really getting up here, God, to feed your people?
SPEAKER_01: And you think, oh, Pastor, well, I I know you.
SPEAKER_01: You you get up there just to feed us every week.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be so sure.
SPEAKER_01: It's a, oh, I hope I end up there every week, but it's a battle I have to wrestle with.
SPEAKER_01: It's a prayer, seriously, every single week.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Buskie, am I the only?
SPEAKER_01: All right, he's with me.
SPEAKER_01: I feel better about myself.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you say, well, I don't know if I uh, you know, when I give to the poor and I help people, it's it's for pure intentions.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if there's ever been a time when when my thoughts were evil.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm more sanctified than that, that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me just ask you, what if today, what if today the Lord were just to reveal every thought that came to your mind or everything that you meditated on, good, bad, ugly, this week?
SPEAKER_01: Would you have come to church today if you knew that was gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: Would you walk out right now?
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: We know this, we're just not honest about it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the point of all this.
SPEAKER_01: Our problem with divine judgment that we see in stories like the Flood is the the um the flood is this.
SPEAKER_01: We think and we ask questions like, how could God how could God wipe out innocent people?
SPEAKER_01: We ask the same thing with suffering.
SPEAKER_01: How how could God allow suffering to come upon good people?
SPEAKER_01: Or you could say it like this, I hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Why why why does bad why do bad things happen to good people?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a fair question, but the answer is are there really good people?
SPEAKER_01: See, if you want to grasp you know why divine justice happens and why God can still be loving and kind.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to come to terms with human depravity, with the wickedness of the human heart, not just human behavior.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is God's response to all of this?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have I given you like the gloomiest picture of the world?
SPEAKER_01: How many feel encouraged this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I bet you can't wait to go out into this horrible place, right?
SPEAKER_01: What is God's response to human wickedness?
SPEAKER_01: Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, verse three.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord said, My spirit, capital S, shall not abide in man forever, for his flesh, his days shall be 120 years.
SPEAKER_01: 120 there years, it's a prediction of the flood when man will be wiped away.
SPEAKER_01: Think of this my spirit shall not abide forever, or you could say strive with man forever.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that tells me for 1,500 years, since Adam and Eve up to this point in the text, God has been striving with man.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_01: And we see that we saw this in the story of Cain.
SPEAKER_01: He tried to call Cain, uh, you know, he told Cain, Don't give in to the sin crouching at your door.
SPEAKER_01: And then when Cain kills his brother, God's still trying to draw him to repentance, but Cain doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: For 1500 years, God has been striving with man, trying to get their hearts to turn to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, This is who I am.
SPEAKER_01: Be like Seth, be like the Lamech in Seth line, be like Noah, turn to me, walk in faith.
SPEAKER_01: But they won't do it.
SPEAKER_01: And here's oh my goodness, this is something we're thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: God is really patient, but there will come an end to his patience.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a parent, you know this.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're sometimes really patient with your kids, like they're going crazy, and you think, all right, don't get mad, their kids, and the and and you tell them calm down, you know, get your act together.
SPEAKER_01: How many parents know there comes a time when you say enough?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, say it like you say it to them.
SPEAKER_01: Enough is enough.
SPEAKER_01: And that is true with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this is why it is so dangerous to resist the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is calling you, He is telling you to repent of something, He is telling you to do something, and the longer you refuse, the quieter that voice of the Holy Spirit gets.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually, you know what God will do?
SPEAKER_01: He'll give you over to your own desire.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you don't want me, you don't want to obey me.
SPEAKER_01: Fine, have it your way.
SPEAKER_01: Go read Romans 1.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what happens.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't suggest it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the worst thing God can give us is what we want that doesn't align with his will.
SPEAKER_01: The worst punishment ever.
SPEAKER_01: I I've shared this story before, but it but it illustrates so well what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Uh have a good friend who years ago um he would be arrested for this now, but this is when you could be a little harsher with your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And um it's quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you're like, what in the world are you gonna say?
SPEAKER_01: So he had young kids and and he had this daughter who liked to kind of rebel.
SPEAKER_01: She was very young and um five or six, something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And they had a wood-burning stove in their in their living room.
SPEAKER_01: And she would um she would constantly go up there and and try to touch it.
SPEAKER_01: He'd pull her back and say, No, it's honey, it's gonna burn you.
SPEAKER_01: Stay away.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then this became a game to her.
SPEAKER_01: And she'd go up to the, you know, if this is the stove, and she would go and she'd look back.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you do it, it's gonna burn you.
SPEAKER_01: And this went on for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, you know what he said?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Fine, I've warned you.
SPEAKER_01: Do what you want.
SPEAKER_01: She learned, and that's what will happen to you.
SPEAKER_01: You, God can say, Hey, you do this, you do this.
SPEAKER_01: And and your Christian friends, if we're worth anything, we'll call you away from sin and back to repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, No, no, no, you can ignore us, you can run from us, and you can run from God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And out of his grace and his patience and the mercy, he's gonna keep calling you and keep calling you and keep striving with you until he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be there.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, Hebrews said, I quote it all the time: exhort one another daily, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Daily exhort one another, lest you be hardened by sin's deceitfulness, and you do what?
SPEAKER_01: You fall away from the living God.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: God responds though with patience.
SPEAKER_01: I love Exodus 34.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is merciful and gracious and slow to anger.
SPEAKER_01: We think God is just looking to get angry, somebody to strike with a lightning bolt.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he's slow to anger and he's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get a witness that God is patient and he is quick to give us mercy?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, God responds to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this gets to me with a broken heart.
SPEAKER_01: If I were to ask you, what is God's heart like this morning?
SPEAKER_01: You would say, Well, it's full of joy and it is.
SPEAKER_01: But you know this morning that God's heart is also broken because of the pervasive wickedness in the world, and because some of us, we all sin from time to time, right?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've done that today.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and maybe you have sinned and you haven't repented, you haven't confessed, you haven't turned from it.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to know it breaks God's heart.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was really young, and this is I'm sure true for you, the reason I obeyed my parents, what was my motivation?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to get spanked, I didn't want to get grounded.
SPEAKER_01: But now, you know why I don't want to, you know I won't, I don't why I don't want to do things that would frustrate my parents.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna get in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, I'm still a little scared of my mom, but uh but listen, the reason I don't want to disappoint my parents, and I won't say disobey, but but go in a direction that they would not like, it's not because I'm scared of punishment, it's because I don't want to break their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You know, two weeks ago we talked about when we looked at the story of Cain, um the consequences sin has on our own life.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we looked at Cain's line and Seth's line, and we talked about how our sin doesn't just affect us, but our families, our those in our sphere of influence.
SPEAKER_01: But a question we don't ask enough is what does our sin do to God?
SPEAKER_01: Your sin and my sin and the sin of the world breaks his heart.
SPEAKER_01: You know this.
SPEAKER_01: If you've had a prodigal son, like if you know you've had a teenager or a young adult, uh son or daughter who has gone astray, you're not sitting, I mean, you are angry and you are frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: But but, parents, if you've ever had that, what is your top emotion?
SPEAKER_01: It is a broken heart if you're any parent at all.
SPEAKER_01: You give yourself for them to come back.
SPEAKER_01: And praise God, that's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We sinners who have gone astray, God gave us Christ to bring us back home.
SPEAKER_01: God's heart is broken over sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now it says here in verses five and six, look at this.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great, every intention of his heart was evil continually, and the Lord regretted that he made man on earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to say this before I move on.
SPEAKER_01: You say, God regretted something?
SPEAKER_01: Let me clarify this.
SPEAKER_01: It does not mean that God made a mistake, or God is perfect in all of his ways.
SPEAKER_01: And it does not mean that he made a bad decision or that he was somehow surprised, like, oh, I didn't think the world was gonna turn out this way.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, he's omniscient, he's Alpha and Omega, he knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end.
SPEAKER_01: So what in the world does it mean that he were regretted?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that the rest of the verse is what clarifies the meaning, and that is, he regretted in the sense of his heart was broken.
SPEAKER_01: That's what regretted means.
SPEAKER_01: We know that God knew what was going to happen because here's what 1 Peter 1, 19 and 20 says with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, he was, Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but made manifest in the last time for the sake of you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my point on that.
SPEAKER_01: Peter is saying that God knew, he planned from the beginning, that Jesus Christ would come and lay down his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_01: And if God knew that a savior was necessary, if he already had thought up the redemptive plan, he knew the world was going to fall and be need of redemption in need of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So God's heart is broken.
SPEAKER_01: So he responds, God does, with a broken heart, with patience.
SPEAKER_01: But then he does respond with judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He declares that his patience will run out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to talk a lot about this.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at the flood in weeks to come.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to argue again that when you see the state of the world, that you cannot have a problem with God's judgment, which is pretty severe.
SPEAKER_01: In 2024, a jury found Chad Daybell guilty of murdering his first wife and his second wife's two children.
SPEAKER_01: When Dabell was sentenced to death, capital punishment, there were very few people who said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe the judge would make that decision.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You know what people understood is they sat through the testimonies of the families in that courtroom.
SPEAKER_01: The punishment fit the crime.
SPEAKER_01: And I just believe this, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Our problem with the severity of God's punishment, again, can only be resolved when we see the severity of a man's wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's happening, and I think this is so good.
SPEAKER_01: Before the flood happens, and you just get to the story of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Moses does in these first verses.
SPEAKER_01: He pulls back the curtain so that we can see man's depravity.
SPEAKER_01: And that God is absolutely just.
SPEAKER_01: God responds in his judgment.
SPEAKER_01: God responds with patience, with a broken heart, and with severe judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But watch this, finally, the story doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: This is where I'll close.
SPEAKER_01: God responds with mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses eight and nine.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't tune out.
SPEAKER_01: This is so powerful.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said, I'll blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land.
SPEAKER_01: Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heaven, for I'm sorry that I've made them.
SPEAKER_01: But Noah found favor in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_01: And these are the generations of Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
SPEAKER_01: Noah walked with God.
SPEAKER_01: The word favor in verse eight could be translated grace or gracious acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: And this is really important.
SPEAKER_01: Noah, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Noah was not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Noah was not sinless.
SPEAKER_01: There are none righteous, no, not one.
SPEAKER_01: And you just read the post-flood story and you'll you'll understand this very quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Shem, Ham, and Japhet were not sinless.
SPEAKER_01: Noah's kids.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to notice the progression of verses eight and nine.
SPEAKER_01: First, Noah finds grace or favor with the Lord, then he walks blameless.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that Noah is perfect in I think he's walking in faith, but he's not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: He's not keeping all the rules, and then God says, Oh, I like that one.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give him favor.
SPEAKER_01: No, God gives him favor, then he walks blameless.
SPEAKER_01: See, a lot of people today get that backwards.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to clean themselves up, to keep all the rules, perhaps, so that God would accept them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a bad idea because you and I can't keep the rules.
SPEAKER_01: No human can keep God's law perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: But aren't you glad this morning that even though you weren't blameless, even though you've sinned, even though you were a rebel, the Bible even says an enemy of God that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: It's God who loved us first, it's favor, then we walk with God.
SPEAKER_01: And think about this.
SPEAKER_01: God, here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: If Noah's a sinner too, if Shem, Ham, and Japheth are sinners too, they have no right to be preserved.
SPEAKER_01: God has every right in the story to wipe out creation completely.
SPEAKER_01: Every man, woman, boy, and girl, God would be completely just to wipe them out.
SPEAKER_01: But he shows mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Just imagine this.
SPEAKER_01: Let me illustrate how glorious this is.
SPEAKER_01: Hypothetically, say that I have three adult cousins.
SPEAKER_01: Say they're second or third cousins, distant relatives, don't know them well, and let's say they have no other family, and they are down on their luck, they have no job, they cannot find shelter, they have raggedy clothing, they have no food, they have nothing, and they have nowhere to go, no one to help them.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just say, though I'm under no obligation to do so, I barely know them.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I, we take in these three adult men.
SPEAKER_01: And as time goes on, let's say these men behave very badly, they trash our house, they display violent behavior, they steal from us, they're disrespectful.
SPEAKER_01: And let's just say that I'm very patient with them and I talk to them time and say, listen, if this is gonna work, some things have got to change, but time and time again they don't listen.
SPEAKER_01: And let's say a year goes by and I've lost my patience.
SPEAKER_01: And so, remember, there's three adult men I'm we're helping.
SPEAKER_01: I send two of them out back on the streets.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I'm sorry, you gotta leave, but I let one of them stay.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you get word of this.
SPEAKER_01: You my suspicion is that you're not going to ask me, How in the world could you put those two men back on the street?
SPEAKER_01: No, you're gonna ask me, Why in the world would you let one stay?
SPEAKER_01: You see my point.
SPEAKER_01: God created the heavens and the earth, and over and over as he created the world, he said, It is good, it is good.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said, It is very good.
SPEAKER_01: He made human beings, you and me in his image.
SPEAKER_01: He put Adam and Eve in paradise in a cosmic temple, calling them to the garden where they could walk with him.
SPEAKER_01: It's his house, it's his garden, and they get to dwell.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave them every plant that they needed to sustain them, running water, streams of water that they didn't have to bottle, they could just lap it up.
SPEAKER_01: He gave them marriage, a pure relationship, everything it was paradise, and he invited them into his house, but then the serpent came in, and they disrespected God, Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and they disobeyed him and they rebelled and they made a mockery of his name, and God moves them out of the garden, but he doesn't kill them, though the wages of sin is death, they don't die immediately.
SPEAKER_01: There's mercy, and then again, this sin progresses, it passes on from Cain through the family tree, and it's gotten so bad by the Noah's day that God has every right to wipe out all of humanity, and he wipes multitudes out to preserve his creation.
SPEAKER_01: Creation, but to preserve his creation and those created in his image, he saves one eight total, no way in his family now, another judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Please listen, another judgment's coming, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Like many people have a problem with the flood story, how could a loving God do this?
SPEAKER_01: There's there's another similar issue people have, and that's the idea of divine judgment in the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: How could a good God let anybody be thrown into the lake of fire?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because our wickedness is no different than in the days of Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 24, 37 through 39, Jesus says, For as we're in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: For in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving to marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody was paying attention, though there's this massive ark being built.
SPEAKER_01: Noah's lost his mind.
SPEAKER_01: They don't take God's warning seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them away.
SPEAKER_01: So will be the coming, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the age, there's going to be another sweeping away.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, Two will be walking, one will be taken.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to be taken away in judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be left, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: You want to remain like Noah remained.
SPEAKER_01: And just like, you know, we've heard this, people know this.
SPEAKER_01: A judgment's coming.
SPEAKER_01: They've heard it, but they don't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, like in Noah's day, they're they're living like the world.
SPEAKER_01: They're not taking God seriously, they're just going on with life.
SPEAKER_01: And like in the days of Noah, that judgment will come upon them in a blink of the eye.
SPEAKER_01: And we all deserve, this is what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: We all deserve to be swept away.
SPEAKER_01: You're not a good person in and of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a good person.
SPEAKER_01: I'm okay, but I'm not good.
SPEAKER_01: None of us.
SPEAKER_01: There are none righteous.
SPEAKER_01: No, not one.
SPEAKER_01: We all deserve death, hell, the grave.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: So never ask God to give you what you deserve.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve to be swept away in the flood of God's wrath, but like with Noah, there's mercy for us.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: We can be spared from the judgment to come.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Jesus, who bore the waters of God's wrath for us.
SPEAKER_01: Noah's family, what did they do?
SPEAKER_01: They were saved by going into a wooden ark.
SPEAKER_01: And we are saved through the one who hung on a wooden cross.
SPEAKER_01: Through him, we can be saved from the waters of God's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just read one verse or one stanza of grace greater than all our sin.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to sing it in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Sin and despair like the sea waves cold.
SPEAKER_01: Our sin is like a flood washing over us, threaten the soul with infinite loss.
SPEAKER_01: Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, points us to refuge, the mighty cross.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, if you're here today and you're yeah, you know, you're trying to clean your life up and all of that, good for you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you do not know Jesus, you can't clean it up and you are destined to meet the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: But if you will repent and turn to Him today, if you'll believe upon the Lord Jesus, make Him Lord of your life, listen, you can be saved from the judgment to come.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not the only reason to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: You can have life now as well.
SPEAKER_01: Make the decision today.
SPEAKER_01: And if you here are here and you are a Christian, may you be eternally grateful for the wooden cross, that old rugged cross.
SPEAKER_01: May you cling to the cross and even more so cling to the empty grave.
SPEAKER_01: May you be thankful and may we all who have been called to righteousness and been cleansed, may we walk in righteousness, never wanting to break the heart of our good God.